Ken Vandermark - Sunday Interview

Photo by Peter Gannushkin

1. What is your greatest joy in improvised music?
   
   Creating new music in real time.
   
   
2. What quality do you most admire in the musicians you perform with?
   
   Risk
   
   
3. Which historical musician/composer do you admire the most?
   
   Duke Ellington
   
   
4. If you could resurrect a musician to perform with, who would it be?
   
   Derek Bailey
   
   
5. What would you still like to achieve musically in your life?
   
   To create something as good as Billie Holiday’s work with Lester Young.
   
   
6. Are you interested in popular music and - if yes - what music/artist do you particularly like?
   
   Sly Stone and the Family Stone
   
   
7. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
   
   To be multilingual.
   
   
8. Which of your albums are you most proud of?
   
   Haven’t made it yet.
   
   
9. Once an album of yours is released, do you still listen to it? And how often?
   
   No and never.
   
   
10. Which album (from any musician) have you listened to the most in your life?
    
    Anthony Braxton’s, Dortmund (Quartet) 1976 [hat ART]
    
    
11. What are you listening to at the moment?
    
    Erik Satie
    
    
12. What artist outside music inspires you?
    
    Chantal Akerman

Ken Vandermark on the Free Jazz Blog*:

• Big in Japan: Paal Nilssen-Love and Ken Vandermark
• Sax & Drums
• A L'ARME! X+I, Berlin, August 10-12, 2023 (Part I+I)
• Ken Vandermark and Paul Lytton - Distant Cousins (Audiographic, 2023)
• Vandermark / Kurzmann / Kern - blue days before they end (epileptic media, 2022)`
• Ken Vandermark/Matthias Muche/Thomas Lehn/Martin Blume - Soundbridges (Jazzwerkstatt, 2022)
• Ivo Perelman - Reed Rapture in Brooklyn (Mahakala Music, 2022)
• Solo sax - The Overview I
• A L'ARME Festival Vol. 10 (Part 2)
• A L'ARME Festival Vol. 10 (Part 1)
• McPhee Marker - McPhee Marker (Corbett vs. Dempsey , 2022)
• Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet: Ultraman vs. Alien Metron (Corbett vs. Dempsey, 2022)
• Ballister & Ken Vandermark/Nate Wooley/Paul Lytton at the Cleveland Bop Stop 4/19/2022
• Ballister - Chrysopoeia (Not Two, 2022) ****½
• Ken Vandermark - Momentum 5: Stammer (triptych) (Audiographic, 2021) ***½
• Ken Vandermark - Momentum 5: Stammer (triptych) (Audiographic, 2021) ****½
• Joe McPhee (Part III)
• Joe McPhee (part I)
• Mars Williams - An Ayler Christmas Volume 5 (Astral Spirits, 2021) *****
• Hyde Park Jazz Festival 2021 - Chicago, IL (Day 1 of 2)
• Ken Vandermark (x2) & Nate Wooley
• The Catalytic Sound Festival with Ken Vandermark and Brock Stuessi
• Ken Vandermark / István Grencsó / Róbert Benkő - Burning River Melting Sea (Égő Folyó Olvadó Tenger) (Audiographic Records, 2020) ****½
• Viennese Electronic Dreams
• The Underflow – Instant Opaque Evening (Blue Chopsticks, 2021) ****
• Catalytic Sound Stream: Q&A with Ken Vandermark and Sam Clapp
• Various ‎– Not Two...But Twenty (Not Two, 2020) *****
• Vandermark / Drake / Trovalusci / Ceccarelli - Open Border (Audiographic Records, 2020) ****
• Scene Spotlight: Sidebar (New Orleans, LA)
• Ken Vandermark on Catalytic Sound, a Virtual Festival, and Making Music in a Pandemic
• Entr'acte - Soigne Ta Droite (Audiographic, 2019) *****
• Latest Releases from Paal Nilssen-Love
• Momentum 4: Consequent Duos 2015>2019 (Audiographic, 2019) *****
• Konstrukt & Ken Vandermark - Kozmik Bazaar (Karlrecords 2019) ****
• Music Unlimited 33: Celebration 40.60.80
• Made To Break - F4 Fake (Trost, 2019) ****
• Susan Alcorn, Joe McPhee, Ken Vandermark - Invitation To A Dream (Astral Spirits, 2019) ****
• Susan Alcorn, Joe McPhee, Ken Vandermark - Invitation To A Dream (Astral Spirits, 2019) *****
• Ken Vandermark & Terrie Ex - Scaffolding (Terp, 2019) ****
• Paal Nilssen-Love/Ken Vandermark - Screen Off (PNL Records) ****
• Two more from PNL!
• DKV Trio & Joe McPhee ‎– The Fire Each Time (Not Two, 2019) ****½
• Ken Vandermark and Nate Wooley - Deeply Discounted/Sequences of Snow (Audiographic/Pleasures of the Text, 2018) ****½
• Keeping Up with Paal Nilssen-Love
• Marker – New Industries (Audiographic Records, 2019) *****
• Ken Vandermark/Paal Nilssen-Love live at Underflow record store, Athens. 12-1-2018.
• Ken Vandermark - Momentum 2 & 3 (Audiographic, 2018) ****½
• VWCR (Ken Vandermark - Nate Wooley - Sylvie Courvoisier - Tom Rainey) - Noise Of Our Time (Intakt Records, 2018) ****
• Ken Vandermark, Klaus Kugel, Mark Tokar – No-Exit Corner (Not Two Records, 2018) ****
• Paul Rutherford, Ken Vandermark, Torsten Müller, Dylan van der Schyff - Are we in Diego? (WhirrbooM! Records, 2018) ****½
• Blow Out Festival 2018
• Marker – Roadwork 1 / Roadwork 2 / Homework 1 (3 CD BOX SET) (Audiographic Records, 2018) *****
• Marker – Wired For Sound (Audiographic Records, 2017) *****
• DKV Trio - Latitude 41.88 (Not Two, 2017) ****½
• Ken Vandermark, Klaus Kugel & Mark Tokar - Escalator (NotTwo, 2017) ****½
• Made to Break - Trébuchet (Trost, 2017) *****
• The Few - Fragments of a Luxury Vessel (Two Cities, 2017) ****½
• Lean Left – I Forgot To Breathe (Trost, 2017) ****
• DEK Trio – Construct 3: Divadlo (Audiographic Records, 2017) ****½
• DEK Trio – Construct 1: Stone (Catalytic Sound, 2017) ****½
• Eric Revis - Sing Me Some Cry (Clean Feed, 2017) ****½
• Sharif Sehnaoui / Adam Gołębiewski - Meet the Dragon (Uznam, 2017) ***½
• Tim Daisy, Michael Thieke, Ken Vandermark – Triptych (Relay Records, 2017) ****
• Shelter - Shelter (Audiographic, 2017) ****½
• The Latest From Lasse Marhaug
• Ken Vandermark - Momentum 1: Stone (Audiographic Records, 2016) *****
• Latest from Dutch Guitarist Terrie Hessels (a/k/a Terrie Ex)
• The Latest Trio Albums of Swedish Reeds Player Martin Küchen
• Fred Lonberg-Holm: Two Duos
• Six-In-One – Subjects and Structures (Slam, 2016) ****
• Deep Whole Trio ‎– Paradise Walk (Multikulti Project, 2016) ****
• DKV/Thing Trio – Collider (Not Two Records, 2016) ****½
• The year in review
• DEK Trio - Burning Below Zero (Trost, 2016) ****
• The 2016 Free Jazz Blog Reviewer's Top 10s
• Unlimited 30 Festival, Wels, Austria, Nov. 11-13, 2016
• Ken Vandermark- Three Duos
• The Swedes Are Coming #2
• Mats Gustafsson / Christof Kurzmann - Failing and 5 other failings (Trost, 2016) ****
• Dave Rempis & the Aerophonic Download Series
• Ken Vandermark's Made to Break Live - Systems vs. Artifacts Extravaganza
• Sounds from Chicago
• The Swedes Are Coming
• ALSO (Katharina Ernst / Martin Siewert) - Live at Wirr (Trost, 2016) ****
• Three Day A L'arme!
• Lean Left, KSET, Zagreb, Croatia; 6/1/2016
• Mats Gustafsson and Friends - MG50: Peace & Fire (Trost, 2016) *****
• Ken Vandermark/Paal Nilssen-Love Duo, Bonn, Dialograum Kreuzung an St. Helena, 5/27/2016
• Stefan Keune/Paul Lovens – Live 2013 (FMR, 2016) ****
• Ken Vandermark & Nate Wooley – Islington Mill, Manchester, 17.05.16
• And many more ...
• Two Guys
• Nate Wooley & Ken Vandermark Duo - All Directions Home (Audiographic, 2015) ****
• Ken Vandermark - Site Specific (Audiographic, 2015) ****
• Rara Avis - Rara Avis (Not Two, 2015) ****
• Audio One - What Thomas Bernhard Saw (Audiographic, 2015) ****½
• Resonance Ensemble - Double Arc (Not Two, 2015) *****
• Made to Break - Before the Code (Trost, 2015) ****½
• Catching up with Ken
• Steve Swell - Kanreki. Reflection & Renewal (Not Two, 2015) ***½
• Unlimited 29 Festival: Charhizmatic Music
• Albums of the Year 2015
• Paal Nilssen-Love & Ken Vandermark - The Lions Have Eaten One Of The Guards (Audiographic, 2015) ****
• Fred Lonberg-Holm & Ken Vandermark ‎– Resistance (Bocian, 2015) ****
• Chicago Reed Quartet - Western Automatic (Aerophonic, 2015) ****
• James Falzone: The Renga Ensemble - The Room Is (Allos Documents, 2015) ****½
• Guitar Solos & Duos - Loren Connors and Alan Licht
• Polish Jazz Week: Wrap-up/Round-up
• Dave Rempis: Days of Ballister and Rempis (Day 1)
• Luc Ex’ Assemblée – Luc Ex’ Assemblée (Red Note, 2014) ***½
• 100 Years Sun Ra (revisited)
• Nate Wooley and Ken Vandermark - East by Northwest (Audiographic, 2014) *****
• Happy New Ears Award 2014
• Ken Vandermark/Paal Nilssen-Love – Extended Duos (Audiographic Records, 2014) *****
• Ken Vandermark - Nine Ways to Read a Bridge (NotTwo, 2014) *****
• Side A - In the Abstract (NotTwo, 2014) ****½
• DKV Trio - Sound in Motion in Sound (NotTwo, 2014) *****
• Ken Vandermark / Paal Nilssen-Love - Lightning Over Water (Laurence Family Records, 2014) ****½
• Albums of the Year - 2014
• Cory Wright Outfit: Apples + Oranges (Singlespeed Music, 2014) *****
• Wacław Zimpel To Tu Orchestra – Nature Moves (For Tune, 2014) ****½
• Happy New Ears 2014
• Guitar Week: Duos (Day 2)
• Mats Gustafsson at 50
• Audio One - The Midwest School / An International Report
• Joe Morris - Perpetual Frontier - The Properties Of Free Music (Riti, 2013)
• Lean Left - Live at Area Sismica (Unsounds, 2014) ****½
• The Rempis/Marhaug Duo - Naancore (Aerophonic, 2014) ****
• Made to Break: Cherchez La Femme (Trost, 2014) ****½
• Wind? Woods! Breath? Brass!
• Solo Bass
• The Resonance Ensemble- Head Above Water/ Feet Out of the Fire (Not Two Records, 2013) ****½
• Agustí Fernández galore ....
• Musician of the year 2013
• DKV Trio plus Mats Gustafsson, Massimo Pupillo and Paal Nilssen-Love: Schl8hof (Trost Records, 2013) ****½
• Paal Nilssen-Love and Lasse Marhaug: An Exploration into Noise
• The Thing: Boot! (The Thing Records / Trost, 2013) *****
• Paal Nilssen-Love Week: Introduction
• Fred Hersch and Julian Lage - Free Flying (Palmetto Records, 2013) ****
• Mats Gustafsson Round Up
• Ken Vandermark’s Topology Nonet feat. Joe McPhee - Impressions of POMusic (OkkaDisk, 2013) ****
• Devin Hoff - Ansible (Bandcamp, 2013) ***½
• Wheelhouse: Boss of the Plains (Aerophonic, 2013) ****
• Rara Avis - Mutations / Multicellulars Mutations (dEN Records, 2013) ****½
• Made To Break: Provoke (Clean Feed, 2013) ****
• Made To Break: Lacerba (Clean Feed, 2013) ****
• Weekend Roundup: Mats Gustafsson
• Weekend Roundup: Fractures, Fragments, Moments and More
• Joe Morris, Agustí Fernández, Nate Wooley - From the Discrete to the Particular (Relative Pitch, 2012)
• Eric Revis 11:11 - Parallax (Clean Feed 2012) ***½
• Paul Lytton/Nate Wooley + Ikue Mori & Ken Vandermark – The Nows (Clean Feed, 2012)****½
• Musician of the Year 2012 (an addendum)
• DKV Trio - Past Present (Not Two, 2012) ****½
• Double Tandem - Ox (dEN Records, 2012)
• Peter Brötzmann’s Chicago Tentet+1: Walk, Love, Sleep (Smalltown Superjazz, 2012) *****
• Mats Gustafsson: Mats G plays Gullin (Sagittarius A-Star, 2012) ****
• A McPhee a Day Keeps the Doctor Away
• Getatchew Mekuria + The Ex + Friends Y'Anbessaw Tezeta (Terp, 2012) ****
• Wojtek Traczyk - Free Solo (Multikulti, 2012) ****
• Platform 1 - Takes Off (Clean Feed, 2012)
• Paal Nilssen-Love: The Day the Noise Stood Still
• The Resonance Ensemble - What Country Is This? (Not Two Records) 2012 ****½
• Nordeson Shelton - Incline (Singlespeed Music, 2011) ****
• Days of Vandermark & Brotzmann
• Vandermark ...
• Side A - A New Margin (Clean Feed, 2011) ****
• Tim Daisy & Ken Vandermark - The Conversation (MultiKulti, 2011) ***½
• Reed Trio - Last Train to the First Station (Kilogram Records 2011) ****½
• Free Fall - Gray Scale (SMJZ, 2010) ****½
• The Engines - Wire and Brass (OkkaDisk, 2010) ****
• Mats Gustafsson – Needs! (Dancing Wayang, 2010) ***
• The Vandermark 5 - The Horse Jumps/The Ship Is Gone (Not Two, 2010) *****
• Complete Communion - Don Cherry tribute albums
• Powerhouse Sound - Overlap (Laurence Family, 2010) ****
• Peter Brötzmann's Chicago Tentet +1 - 3 Nights In Oslo (Smalltown Superjazz, 2010) ****
• Vandermark & friends ....
• Ken Vandermark & Paal Nilssen-Love - Milwaukee Volume (Smalltown Superjazz, 2010) *****
• Brötzmann ....
• Fred Anderson Quartet - Live At The Velvet Lounge, Vol. 3 (Asian Improv, 2009) ****
• Vandermark even more galore
• Vandermark galore (bis)
• Ken Vandermark - Resonance (Not Two, 2008) ****½
• Best (free) jazz DVDs of 2008
• Ab Baars Trio & Ken Vandermark - Goofy June Bug (WIG, 2008) ***½
• Vandermark, Nagl, Thomas, Reisinger - C.O.D.E (Cracked Anegg, 2008) ****
• Atomic/School Days - Distil (Okka Disk, 2008) ****
• Fire Room - Broken Music (Atavistic, 2008) ***
• Jason Stein's Locksmith Isidore - A Calculus Of Loss (Clean Feed, 2008) ****
• The Rempis Percussion Quartet - Hunter-Gatherers (482 Music, 2007) ***½
• Solo Sax
• Sax piano duo
• Vandermark galore ....
• The Art of the Duo : trumpet-drums duo and sax-drums duo
• Joe Morris - Rebus (Clean Feed, 2007) **½
• Spaceways Inc. - Version Sould (Atavistic, 2002) *****
• Ken Vandermark - Three reviews
• Why is free jazz the ultimate genre of music? (1)
• School Days - In Our Times

*In the compilation process of this list, it was amazing how often Ken Vandermark was mentioned as a touchstone of some sort. From style of music, to have recorded with, to craft, the list was double what is presented here. Of course, there are likely many that have slipped through the filter still, thus some of the articles listed here may reference Ken Vandermark and not be a recording he was involved with making.